Improvement in machines for opening cotton



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R. KITSON.

MACHINE FOR OPENING COTTON, &c. Nn.179,659. PatentedJ'u1y1L1876.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 2. R. KITSON MACHINE FOR OPENING COTTON, 800. No. 179,659. -Patent.ed Ju1y'11,1876.

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SSheets-Shet a. R. KITSON. MACHINE FOR OPENING COTTON, &c. No.179,659. Patented July 11, 1876.

Witnesses. lnvenio Y X Q/aZW NPETERS, PHOWLITHDGHAPHER, WASHINGTON. I)v C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

- RICHARD KITSON, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO 'KI'ISON MACHINE COMPANY.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR OPENING COTTON, 80c.

, Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. [79,659, dated July 11, 1876; application filed May 17, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RIOHARD'KITSON, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain improvements in Machines for Opening and Preparing Cotton, of which the following is a specification My invention consists in certain improvements upon the machine for opening cotton and other fibrous substances, patented to Samuel Fay, January 22, A. D. 1867, Patent No. 61,411. It relates, first, to a new method of hanging the disks ofsaid machine, so as to avoid strain upon their shaft-bearings, and cause them to be balanced byeach other, thereby efl'ectin-g a great saving in the power required to drive them; second, to the combination, with a single delivery-spoutfor the opened cotton, of two sets of the disks ofthe machine, whereby I am enabled to make the sets of disks lighter by one-half, and thus diminish the expense of constructing them more than one-half, as well as the wear and tear of the machine and its liability to breakages, which are very much more than doubled by doubling the size of the disks, the object of this part of the invention being to avoid these difficulties while keeping the capacity and production of the machine as before; third, to

the combination of each set of disks of the machine with a revolving screen-cylinder for forming the lap, by means of a laterally-expanding passage-way, to distribute the cotton over a wider space upon the screen-cylinder than that through which it escapes from the beater-disks, without which it is difficult to form a lapfrom this beater; fourth, to the combination,- with each set of beater-disks, of a movable apron for delivering the cotton to the heaters, through an inclined receiver or hopper, whereby the cotton is delivered in a continuous and uniform sheet or quantity to the heaters, which insures the formation of a lap upon the receiving screencylinder, without break or fault.

The machine of Samuel Fay has been found to open the cotton without injuring the fiber, because its heaters strike or beat the lumps of cotton apart without their being held or compressed between rollers when subjected .of'forming a lap from it, owing to its necessary form, have prevented its general adoption by manufacturers. My improvements are intended to overcome these difficulties.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan view of my improvements with the bonnets removed from the beater disks and screen-cylinder. Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the line a a of Fig. 1, with the bonnets on, showing the relative position of the feed-apron, one side of the hopper, and the delivery to the screencylinder. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through the line b b of Fig. 1, With the bonnets on, showing the relative position of one pair of the beaterdisks, and one side of the escape-passage for the beaten cotton and the screen-cylinder. Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of my machine, showing the manner in which each cotton-escape passage expands horizontally from the beater toward the screen-cylinder, and how the two escape-passages unite in one before reaching the screen-cylinder, to enable the two pairs of beater-disks to deliver the cotton to the cylinder, as if these were one pair. Fig. 5 is a vertical section through the line 0 c of Fig. 1, with the bonnets on, showing the mode of hanging the beater-disks upon their shafts, and of securing the latter in their boxes, and also showing the relative positions of the feed-apron, the hoppers, the openings to the beater-disk chambers, and the beater disks and arms.

A A is the frame of the machine. Upon the frame are placed two boxes, d d, in which h h being secured in the inner girts of the frame A, so that the shaft 9 shall not comein contact with the shaft c. On the ends of the shaft g, and just within and close to the disks B 13, are secured two other disks, (J O, which are parallel with and smaller than the former, and revolve close to them, and which are the smaller of each pair of disks in the machine. From the inner faces of the disks B B project beater-arms w m, and arms a" w from the inner faces of the disks O O, and the cotton is opened by revolving these beater-disks, as-in the Fay machine.

It will be seen that by using ahollow shaft, 9, upon which to hang the disks 0 O, and passing the shaft e through it, I amenabled to hang each beater-disk B B within the bearings of their shaft on the frame, thus preventing the excessive strain upon the shaft which is produced by hanging these larger disks upon the projecting ends of the shaft, as heretofore. I also balance the smaller disk 0 upon one end of the hollow shaft 9, by the disk 0 upon the other end, and the two are driven nearly as easily as one alone.

The cotton to be opened is placed upon thev feed-apron D D, and is carried forward upon the apron, revolved by means of the shaft m beneath-the feed-roller K, and falls into the receivers or hoppers H H, one of which is provided for each pair of disks. From these hoppers the cotton is drawn by suction of the air created by rotation of the heaters through openings in the bonnets G G into the chambers M M, in which the disks'revolve, and, after being thoroughly opened, is thence driven through the expanding passages LL, uniting into one before reaching the cylinder E, and is blown in a sheet as wideas the length of the cylinder E, which, revolving, forms the lap. .Thehoppers H H are made in two equal corresponding parts, to divide the cotton equal- 1y as it falls from the feed-apron D D, and each has an inclined bottom, P, sloping toward the corresponding opening in the hon- What I claim as new, and my invention, is-

1. The combination of the shaft 0, carrying the pair of beater-disks attached to it between its bearings, with the hollow shaft g surrounding the'sha-ft e, and carrying the second pair of heater-disks attached to it, substantially as described.

2. The combination of the pair of beaterdisks B O, with the screen-cylinder E, and the horizontally expanding cotton -delivery trunk L, substantially as described.

3. The combination of two pairs of beaterdisks, B O and 3'0, with the screen-cylinder E, and the bifurcated cotton-delivery trunk L L, substantially as described.

4. The combination, with the pair of heaterdisks B O and their surrounding ease, of the hopper H, for delivering the cotton uniformly to the heater-disks, substantially as described.

5. The hopper H, provided with perforated walls, as described, to admit the passage ofaircurrents.

6. The combination of the revolving delivery or feed table D D, with the beater-disks B O, and the hopper H, substantially as described. 7. The shaft 9, provided at its opposite ends with the heater-disks O O, in combination with the disks B B and their supportingshai't, the said disks being arranged face to face, substantially as described.

RICHARD KITSON. Witnesses:

THOMAS S'roT'r, JOHN W. ANDERSON. 

